From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 04/11
Date: 1996/04/12
Message-ID:
X-Deja-AN: 147088732
sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
organization: University of Waterloo
newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Lead-in: As I add more graphical things, the text dump of the page starts
to get more ornery. I'll stick with posting a text version like this for
a while, but it really doesn't give the whole story.
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Wrestling TidBits
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I guess I shouldn't make big changes to my web page before heading away for
a long weekend. Anyhow, all of the pages are now operational; come by and
take a look at things: awards, pictures, tape lists, TidBits (with in-line
graphics), and other stuff. There may be no TidBits next week (first missed
one of the year! ;-() -- I'll be in the midst of writing a four-day
take-home final, so I doubt I'll be able to take enough time to do TidBits
well.
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[Image] We read TidBits this many times!
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Action Picture of the Week
[Image]Chris Benoit is one of the most-talented wrestlers in the world
today. I first began watching him in the late 1980s when he was
learning his craft in Calgary Stampede. He's been a staple of the New Japan
Junior Heavyweight division for some time now and has never really gotten
the recognition he deserves in North America, arguably until recent years.
He can work in so many styles - old style North American, "New Japan Jr."
style, lucha, and European style - that few wrestlers can compare to him.
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[Image]Assorted In Your House & RAW clips
[Image] I returned from a pleasant weekend in Montreal to find several
e-mails that were upset with me for criticizing the Undertaker or
the Ultimate Warrior in my posting last week. Combining this with watching
the weekly stuff put out by WCW and WWF this past week got me thinking
about how the big two promote pro-wrestling. It's no secret that it annoys
me completely that neither promotion features commentators who actually
call a match, but I think that this practice has a wider impact.
The big two promotions are, for lack of a better description,
"character-based"; by this, I mean that they focus on getting wrestlers
over based on their characters, gimmicks, etc. It's easy to check that the
upper echelon of either promotion is filled with wrestlers who fit this
bill. In this framework, it is irrelevant to call the matches. Sure, some
characters have a trademark move, but that move is typically only brutally
effective when that character uses it. In no way is the focus on the moves
of a match; it is always on the characters, IMO sometimes absurdly so.
Most recently in the Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart WrestleMania match, we
saw the effect of this. Early on, the guys were trading wrestling moves,
working off of headlocks and armbars. Michaels tried several submission
maneuvers that would get loud pops and draw intense interest from other
viewers, but the WWF ringside crowd looked bored and disinterested, the
commentators didn't even mention the moves, and Bret Hart wasn't about to
sell a potential armbar submission. I almost fell off of my chair when
Vince McMahon correctly called a German suplex; the exception to be sure!
[Image]Keiji Muto takes on Naoki Sano on 03/01
Some moves by some wrestlers are over, but usually it's character spots
that rule the booking: Hulk Hogan's hulking up and beating up 111 heels
simultaneously; Undertaker's zombie sit up, tombstone, and choke; Ultimate
Warrior's three moves in two minutes; Public Enemy & Sabu breaking a table
no matter how nonsensical the set-up or timing; Goldust groping his
opponent; a lot of guys just posturing and playing their character (Jim
Duggan, Steve Regal a lot of the time, Jerry Lawler, just too many to
list...).
In contrast, there are promotions that are "move-based." In this framework,
the promotion works hard to get the actual wrestling moves over. The
commentators spend less time talking about fluff, hyping upcoming shows,
pushing characters, or cracking jokes; they call a lot of moves and maybe
even explain the effect of the moves (usually consistent booking of moves
helps make this point). Moves have names that are consistent throughout the
promotion. The matches can have character issues involved, but the moves
are focussed upon. Jim Ross used to get praise for calling matches this
way.
The pleasant part of a move-based promotion is that when a new wrestler
shows up and he can do a lot of moves that have been "taught" to the
audience, he has a great chance of getting over on that ability alone. The
catch is that you've got to use mostly talented wrestlers and your booking
has to be smart.
Neither of the big two has put any effort into becoming more move-based.
The commentary sucks in both promotions. WCW ran one Dean Malenko skit
where showed us one move and then never showed us any more. The WWF put
Bret Hart on top and called him the Excellence of Execution, but never
focussed on his moves and didn't put him cleanly over guys with no moves,
effectively killing the idea that ability is important. Even Shawn Michaels
or Ric Flair aren't really pushed as great wrestlers; they are just other
characters. Although I'd like to remain optimistic and I'm sure that it
will give us some fantastic matches, even WCW's Cruiserweight division
won't move the promotion to being move-based. The commentators would have
to improve dramatically and they've shown no evidence of trying.
Does Ultimate Warrior suck? Certainly. Does Hulk Hogan stink? Definitely.
Does Undertaker bite? You betcha. But the big two are now enjoying a slight
upswing in popularity and they are going to continue to push guys with
limited talent to the top (and I'm not saying that you can't like these
guys, just that they have limited wrestling ability). Still, if you want to
get an idea of what success is, look at some of the Japanese promotions or
look at AAA once it starting pushing the young workers. It would be a big
risk to switch models now, because which ever promotion did it first would
have to do all of the educating while the other tried to kill it. I don't
see it happening any time soon, unless the realism of the UFC continues to
grow.
[Image] The WWF has [Image] on 04/28/96. Line-up has:
* Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel for the WWF Title
* Bodydonnas vs. PIG & HOG for the Tag Titles
* Goldust vs. Ultimate Warrior for the IC Title
* Undertaker vs. Mankind
* Savio Vega vs. Davey Boy Smith
* Vader vs. Razor Ramon
[Image] Early estimates place the WCW Uncensored buy rate at somewhere
between 0.65 and 0.85, which means that nobody is going to be
pushing to get rid of Hulk Hogan.
[Image] The Observer mentions a strange report that I've read in one other
place suggesting that WCW will bring in Ted DiBiase (whose contract
expires in the fall) to play Zillionaire Ted and essentially make fun of
Vince making fun of them.
[Image]
[Image]There's been a fair bit of praise for this week's Monday
Night Raw episode in Rec.sport.pro-wrestling. Maybe I'm a
single-issue guy, but I thought that too much similar stuff happened. It
was sort of funny to see Yokozuna get forklifted out of the Arena (recall
him jumping on Greg Gagne's leg years ago, ending Greg's career); he's off
to the fat farm to get back down to a svelte 500 pounds. Shawn Michaels vs.
Jerry Lawler was pretty bad thanks to Lawler, but the post-match angle with
Diesel was very good. In Southern Ontario, we get Raw live on a channel
from Barrie; it started in progress because of the extra three minutes. I
guess this means that I'll likely wait to tape it the next day from TSN
henceforth. Helmsley vs. Droese had no heat because neither of the
wrestlers are over (that two-minute squash to Ultimate Warrior is going to
kill Helmsley for a while).
The frustrating part about the praise is that the ubiquitous word
"hardcore" is being bandied about as usual. To quote a letter from this
week's Observer:
"A hardcore fan is someone who has been following wrestling a long time,
and appreciates seeing a good wrestling match. Hardcore is loving the sport
of pro-wrestling, not only loving it if someone bleeds, or is pummelled
with a chair or some other weapon."
So the question is: What do you mean when you say "hardcore?"
[Image] The WWF is coming to Hamilton, Ontario, shortly and I would go if
they were delivering a Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart re-match, but
they aren't. Marc Mero debuts too; even though he managed to make a match
with Isaac Yankem watchable (on Raw last week), he doesn't stand much
chance of doing that against his schedule opponent, Jerry Lawler. Rumour
has it that the Smoking Gunns will be back by this show.
[Image] The Observer reports that at the Slammys, they were originally
going to run a "Who was the greatest WWF champ of all time?"
900-line poll, but they were afraid that Hulk Hogan would win.
[Image] New Japan's Tokyo Dome Battle Formation takes place on 04/29/96. My
Japanese friend Masaki reports the line-up:
* Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shinya Hashimoto for the IWGP Title
* Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Genichiro Tenryu
* Road Warriors & Power Warrior vs. Steiners & Scott Norton
* Jushin Liger vs. Great Sasuke for the IWGP Jr. Title
* Great Muta vs. Hakushi
* Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
* Lex Luger vs. Masahiro Chono
[Image] [Image] beat [Image] in the Monday night wars on 04/01 with a 2.9
rating (4.2 share) against a 2.8 ratings (4.1 share). The The PPV buy rates
of the past six months (year or so) show that the WWF has an average buy
rate of 0.76 (0.65) and average gross of $1.52-million ($1.87-million),
while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.50 (0.60) and average gross of
$1.39-million ($1.66-million). The details are an interesting read.
[Image] WCW has Slamboree on 05/19/96.
[Image] The WWF has [Image] on 05/26/96.
[Image] Antonio Inoki's World Wrestling Peace Festival takes place on
06/01/96 in Los Angeles. New Japan, WCW, AAA, and other promotions
will be involved.
[Image] WCW has Great American Bash on 06/16/96.
[Image] Sunny & The Bodydonnas brainstorm
[Image] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/23/96.
[Image] The WWF has [Image] on 07/21/96.
[Image] WCW has Quake At The Lake on 07/07/96.
[Image] WCW has a PPV on 08/11/96.
[Image] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/18/96.
[Image]
[Image] Keiji Muto seems to be having a bad day
[Image] WCW has Fall Brawl 09/15/96.
[Image] The WWF has [Image] on 09/22/96.
[Image] WCW has Halloween Havoc 10/27/96 from Caeser's Palace. It will be
an outdoor show.
[Image] The WWF has [Image] on 10/20/96.
[Image] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/17/96.
[Image] WCW has World War III 11/24/96.
[Image] The WWF has [Image] on 12/15/96.
[Image] WCW has Starrcade on 12/29/96.
[Image] WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The
wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history,
Japanese wrestling stuff, and other things. I've begun restructuring
things. The page will now store old editions of Wrestling TidBits, as space
permits. I'll also add some stuff to allow for the viewing/downloading of
images in the near future. This document will include in-line images from
this point on; I will still post a text version to the newsgroup, but I'm
primarily preparing it for the web now.
[Image] Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos.
If you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request.
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E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca